So you’ve foolishly agreed to meet an online contact in meat space. And yet you know that online made meetings can be appointments to rob you[ Sacramento police warn of social networking robbery trend ]. What to do?Never fear. Sensing’s got you covered with his own training:Sense of Events: A Soviet spy on how to meet a dating-site match in personThanks to my training at the Army’s counter-terrorism school and former Soviet spy Victor Suvorov’s explanation of “fieldcraft,” the steps that espionage agents take to avoid capture while spying on and in hostile countries, here are the rules for meeting anyone whom you have not met in person before:

1. Try to get a photo sent to you beforehand. The sticky wicket is providing one back. In a word, no. But if you are meeting someone from a dating site, this can be difficult. Judgment call to ask. But it is also likely that the other person’s social media, perhaps even the dating site itself, will have one. But be prepared for it to be, um, inaccurate or out of date.

2. Do insist on being fully told how you will recognize the other person – what s/he is wearing, color of hair, does s/he wear eyeglasses, height, weight (yeah, good luck with that, guys), etc. Then when you go to meet, wear something else. If robbers are using these sites to lure you there, you do not want to show up looking like you.

3. Arrive very early. Suvorov wrote that he always arrived a few hours before the set time, found a spot away from the meeting place and keenly observed who came and went, especially those who came and didn’t went. Of course, he was stealing military secrets so you don’t need to arrive hours, plural, early, but one hour. And then watch. I am guessing that thugs will get there 15-20 minutes beforehand, so be alert, as Suvorov was, for men who arrive and seem to have no purpose being there. In other words, they look like they are waiting…. Read even more tips at Sense of Events